1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to semiconductor manufacture, and more particularly relates to a system for fabricating contacts on semiconductor components.
2. Description of the Related Art
Generally, microelectronic devices include one or more die (i.e., micro integrated circuits formed on a single substrate) having a multitude of die bond pads, a chip body, and an interconnection scheme to connect the pads on the die to a supporting substrate. Generally, the supporting substrate is formed into a package around the die to provide physical protection from contaminates. The combination of these is typically referred to as a “chip package”. Conventional packaging includes packages such as dual-inline package (DIP), single-inline package (SIP), ball grid array (BGA), and others.
Conventionally, dies are formed on wafers in a batch process. A wafer generally contains many dies that are eventually singulated to produce individual dies. One current manufacturing process called “wafer bumping” provides electrical contacts (e.g., solder bumps) to a wafer of dies before the singulation process occurs. Once the electrical contacts are formed, the wafer is diced up (i.e., singulated) to form individual dies. Generally, the next step in the process may include individual dies being attached to supporting substrate or placed onto a tape and reel carrier package for later use. In the case of packaged dies, individual dies are usually stored and removed from their packaging at a later time for attachment to a supporting substrate. Dies are then often attached to a substrate using an attachment process or may be processed using a flip chip process whereby each die is flipped over onto a substrate for connection thereto.
Unfortunately, putting electrical contacts on a wafer of dies is often an expensive process. For example, a wafer may be very large and contain many dies. A specialized wafer holding table is often used to hold the wafer to allow a specialized wire bonding apparatuses to apply electrical contacts to the dies in a predetermined patterns, e.g., a bumping pattern. The specialized wafer holding table is often very expensive and cumbersome to use. In addition, such a specialized wire bonding apparatus usually is required to work with the specialized wafer holding table. The specialized wire bonding apparatus is generally programmed to form electrical contacts on the dies for the entire wafer. While such a batch process may be adequate for wafers having dies that have a common bumping pattern, even the slightest change in the bumping patterns, wafer to wafer, may lead to increased manufacturing costs associated with the programming time required for each wafer. In addition, if an error is introduced into the wafer bumping process causing the bumping pattern to be incorrect, some or all of the dies may be deemed defective as the cost of repairing, e.g., reworking, singulated dies may be prohibitive. Further, wafer bumping errors such as these if not caught may affect more than one batch of wafers exacerbating the problem, slowing process throughput, and increasing the cost of die processing.
Therefore, what is needed is an apparatus and method to provide electrical contacts on individual electronic circuits in high volume that is efficient, flexible, and economical.